I don't hate the duraplane, I never had one because of the reviews it receives. If you look at the duraplane it is a piece of PVC square pipe with an aluminum pole to complete the fuse. In other words nothing like a real plane. The freedom flyer will teach how to control an airplane and IMHO you should be able to move right into a trainer after learning to fly on the FF. I did and never looked back. If you get the FF covert the radio system to throttle control vs ON/OFF speed control.